Handsome
tabby Trent and Melvin Vaniman, the chief engineer of America, shortly
after being rescued by the crew of the RMS Trent in October 1910.

The story of Trent, the large tabby cat made famous by an unsuccessful flight across the Atlantic in the airship America, has been told many times. My version of the story has a New York City history twist that you will not find in any other tale about Trent.

On October 22, 1910, a month after the new Gimbel Brothers Department Store opened at Greeley Square in New York City, Walter Wellman’s 27-foot lifeboat and the large tabby cat that was rescued from his hydrogen dirigible, America, were on exhibition on the fourth floor of the new department store.
Trent, lying atop comfy pillows in a gilded cage, attracted crowds of
sightseers — especially women and children — who couldn’t wait to meet
the famous cat that attempted a trans-Atlantic crossing in an airship.
As a continuous line of people tried to pet and woo him, Trent ignored
their attention and declined to be sociable.
I’m going out on a limb here, but maybe the poor cat was trying to
ignore everyone because he had just gone through a very
dramatic experience that I know for a fact would have traumatized most
cats for all the rest of their nine lives.From Atlantic City Stray to Airship Mascot

The America was a 165-long, non-rigid airship built by Mutin Godard in France in 1906 for the journalist Walter Wellman‘s attempt to reach the North Pole by air. The airship took off from Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 15, 1910.

In October 1910, journalist and pioneer airman Walter Wellman and
five companions prepared to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the airship America.
Trent was just a stray cat living with his twin brother in the
airship’s hangar in Atlantic City when the airship’s navigator, Murray
Simon, decided it would be good luck to have a cat on board the historic
flight.
Trent — then called Kiddo — was tossed into the lifeboat, which was
attached just under the airship. Here, radio man Jack Irwin had his post
(America was the first aircraft to carry radio equipment).

Melvin Vaniman and Trent look like the best of friends in their publicity portrait.

No surprise, Kiddo was not too fond of his predicament, and he put on
a great display of anger and terror by meowing and running around the
small space in hysterics.
Chief Engineer Melvin Vaniman was reportedly so annoyed by the antics
of Kiddo that he made the first-ever in-flight radio transmission to a
secretary back on land. “Roy, come and get this goddamn cat!” he yelled.

Kiddo was renamed Trent following the rescue.

The plan was then to lower the cat in a canvas bag to a motorboat
that was running beneath the airship. Unfortunately, the seas were too
rough for the boat to catch the bag, so Kiddo was forced to continue the
journey.
Eventually, Kiddo settled down and took his job as feline co-pilot
quite seriously. (One of his duties was to try to keep the napping men
awake by lounging on their faces.)
Navigator Murray Simon, who had told the press that one must never
cross the Atlantic in an airship without a cat, wrote that Kiddo was
“more useful than any barometer.”
Although the airship set several new records by staying aloft for
almost 72 hours and traveling over 1000 miles, weather and other
problems forced the crew to ditch the airship and join Kiddo in the
lifeboat. Somewhere west of Bermuda, they sighted the Royal Mail
Steamship Trent. After using Morse code to attract the ship’s attention, Jack Irwin made the first aerial distress call by radio.
As the airship drifted out of sight — never to be seen again — the crew of the RMS Trent
rescued all the men and their cat Kiddo and returned them to New York.
Murray Simon reminded the crew that it had been a good idea to bring
Kiddo on the journey, because cats have nine lives.

The airship America, as seen from the deck of the RMS Trent en route to New York City.

Trent Goes to Gimbels
Following the airship’s rescue, Melvin Vaniman and Kiddo — now called
Trent — were invited to help the Gimbel brothers celebrate the opening
of their New York store on Broadway and 32nd Street. As this blog
explores the history of New York City through animal stories, a
pictorial look at the history of Gimbels is in store.
Although Gimbel Brothers New York officially opened on September 29,
1010, the history of this particular store at Greeley Square goes back
to 1874, when the Hudson Tunnel Railroad Company
initiated plans to construct a railroad that would connect New Jersey
and New York City via a tunnel under the mile-wide Hudson River (today
we call this the PATH train).
Construction began in 1874, but litigation and lack of funding caused
numerous delays over the years. Finally in February 1902, the New York
and Jersey Railroad Company took over all of the railroad
company’s tunnels and lines of railway, including 4,000 feet of tunnel
that had already been constructed.

Under the direction of William Gibbs McAdoo, the president of the
New York and Jersey Railroad Company, the McAdoo Tunnel or Hudson
Tubes, as it was called, accommodated electrified surface rail cars. The
cars operated from a terminal in Jersey City (Journal Square) to a
terminal in Manhattan at Christopher, Tenth, Greenwich, and Hudson
streets.
In 1904, the newly formed Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company
(H&M) filed an application to extend the McAdoo Tunnel to a larger
underground terminal on Sixth Avenue at 33rd Street. The
proposed site was occupied by several landmarks, including Trainor’s
hotel and restaurant and the Manhattan Theatre (formerly the Standard
Theatre) on Sixth Avenue, all of which were condemned and demolished in
1905.

The old Standard Theatre on Sixth Avenue and 33rd Street (later called the Manhattan Theatre), was being managed by James M. Hill when
this photo was taken in 1895. The theater was one of many buildings
demolished to make way for the 33rd Street terminal and, later, the
Gimbel Brothers department store. New York Public Library digital
collections.

Many smaller old buildings on West 32nd and West 33rd streets were
also condemned, including a house of prostitution called the House of
Nations and six other properties owned by Albert J.
Adams. Incidentally, Al Adams, as he was called, also had grand plans
for the same site: In 1905 he had proposed to build a 42-story hotel on
the site that was to be the tallest building in the world — more than
125 taller than The Times building and the Park Row Building, which were
then the world’s tallest buildings.

Greeeley
Square between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, looking southwest from about
34th Street. When this photo was taken, the Manhattan Theatre and
Trainor’s restaurant were still standing across from the Sixth Avenue
elevated train station. It was here that the Gimbel Brothers department
store would be built in 1909. NYPL digital collections.

The Broadway side of Greeley Square, as seen in 1807. NYPD digital collections.

On April 23, 1909, five years after the site was cleared to make way
for the McAdoo system concourse at 33rd Street, the Gimbel brothers —
Jacob, Isaac, Charles, Daniel, Ellis, and Louis — signed a 21-year lease
with the Greeley Square Realty Company for the land atop the proposed
terminal (the 33rd Street station did not open until November 1910).
Daniel Burnham (of Flatiron Building fame) was hired to design the new
building.

Following
five months of excavation work, construction on the new department
store started in October 1909. NYPL digital collections

On January 30, 1909, The New York Times announced that the
“massive store” would “be the terminal of the McAdoo tunnel system, or
Manhattan tunnels, which, by the time the store building is completed,
will connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad, Central Railroad of New
Jersey, the Erie system, and the Lackawanna & Western Railroad,
handling, it is estimated, 1,000,000 persons daily.”
On December 8, 1909, a copper box containing a history of the Gimbels
and other data was placed in the cornerstone. The $12 million building
was completed ahead of schedule on June 11, 1910.

Here
is Gimbels in 1920, three years before the department store merged with
Saks (directly across 33rd Street), and five years before the Gimbels
purchased the 18-story Cuyler Building (directly across 32nd Street) .
NYPL digital collections

Here’s
a look under and above Greeley Square at Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street
in the early 1900s. At the bottom, 50 feet below the street, is the new
Pennsylvania Tunnel leading out of Penn Station. Above that is the Rapid
Transit subway and then the tracks of the old McAdoo system (today’s
PATH). Back then, there was also a surface railroad and an elevated
train with a foot bridge that served Gimbels shoppers.

In October 1925, Gimbel Brothers announced the purchase of the Cuyler
Building on the south side of 32nd Street. To connect the Gimbels store
with the Cuyler Building, a three-story, copper-clad sky bridge was
constructed. This bridge still stands today, albeit, it is no longer
functional (check out these amazing photos taken inside the sky bridge in 2014.)

The three-story sky bridge as it looks today. Photo by P. Gavan

On June 6, 1986, the Associated Press reported that Gimbels was going
out of business. Today, the building that once paid tribute to a hero
cat named Trent houses a JCPenney and the Manhattan Mall.
As for Trent, he lived out the rest of his eight remaining lives on
land with Edith Wellman, the daughter of Walter Wellman, in Washington,
D.C.

The
Manhattan Mall and JCPenney now occupy the old Gimbel Brothers
building, and Greeley Square is occupied by an open-air food market
called Broadway Bites. Photo by P. Gavan

http://recipes.hypotheses.org/

By Julia MartinsTitle page of the 1574 edition of the Opera nuova intitolata dificio di ricett. Image from Archive.org.
In 1525 a book called Opera nuova intitolata dificio di ricette
was published in Venice. The book promised to reveal all kinds of
secrets to the reader, from cosmetic to medical recipes. This anonymous
Italian best seller (which we may call in English ‘Palace of Recipes’)
was a collection of 187 short and straightforward recipes, most of them
only 5 or 10 lines long. The printer combined utilitarian and pragmatic
secrets (including treatment of everyday ailments) with playful
elements. Indeed, a taste for the wonderful and a desire to entertain
guests were a vital component of this book. After all, the printer
included instructions to perform magic tricks such as ‘how to make a
candle burn under water’. The work was a commercial success in Italy,
and was reprinted 28 times in the forty years after its publication.
The Dificio di ricette also circulated across Europe in many
different languages, giving it a truly Pan-European flavour. The work
was translated into French in 1539 and in 1545, also translated into
Dutch via the French translation. This kind of indirect translation was
common in the secrets genre. As William Eamon has shown, Alessio’s Secrets were
also translated in English through the French translation. It is
notable that in both cases, the French translation served as a cultural
and linguistic mediator and it was in France that the Palace of Recipes reigned supreme.Title page of the Bâtiment des Recettes, printed in Paris by Jean Ruelle in 1560
Titled the Bâtiment des recettes, the French edition of the
work found even greater success than the Italian one. Between its first
French publication in 1539 and the final edition in 1830, the book was
published 60 times. The main reason for this enduring success is
probably the fact that, in 1631, the Bâtiment des recettes was
added to the series of books printed in Troyes and commonly known as the
‘Bibliothèque Bleue’, since all the editions had blue covers. This
collection of cheaply printed booklets included many books of secrets,
and the Bâtiment des recettes continued to be sold in France until well into the 19th century.
What makes the Bâtiment des recettes so interesting is that it is not simply a translation of the Dificio di ricette.
Rather it is a collection of different texts, themselves anonymous
compilations of recipes. These include a collection of 26 ‘Secrets
Specially Proposed for Women’ added by the printer Jean III Du Pré in
1539 and the ‘Pleasant Garden’ (Plaisantjardin) added
in 1551. A translation from Italian, the ‘Pleasant Garden’ consisted of
202 varied medical recipes ‘developed by doctors very experts in
physic’. Therefore, this 1560 edition contained more than double the
number of recipes in the original Italian Palace.
Of the many editions of the Dificio, the 1560 French edition proved particularly popular and was most reprinted. Recently, Geneviève Debloc published an annotated critical edition of the 1560 edition of the Bâtiment des recettes. This is a very useful tool for historians, tracing the several different additions and suppressions in the Bâtiment des recettes throughout
its four centuries of history, as well as providing us with tables that
offer a systematic account of the ingredients used in the recipes (see
my review here).
Thanks to digitisation and new critical editions, a growing number of
early modern sources are becoming more easily accessible to scholars.
We can compare and contrast complex texts, as in the case of the Dificio.
Through a bibliographical approach, we are given the opportunity to
read an important primary source in the history of knowledge in a new
way – at the crossroads of the history of the book and the history of
technologies in tracing the evolution in the composition of the text
(including paratextual materials and changes in vocabulary), it is
possible to understand how multiple agents were involved in the
production of the book, from translators to printers. The Bâtiment des recettes
can therefore be understood as both process and final product of these
interventions. Through its fragmentary and polymorphic constitution,
this re-edited recipe book gives us compelling insight into early modern
life in France and Italy and its medical practices.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Julia Martins is a PhD student at the Warburg Institute
in London. Her research focuses on recipes about female fertility in
Italian books of secrets (as well as their translations) from 1555 to
1700. Her aim is to show how knowledge about “women’s secrets”
circulated in early modern print, drawing a comparison between Italian
and French books of secrets and English midwifery manuals.

Abstract

The
study of local ecological knowledge (LEK) fosters a better
understanding of the relationship between humans and the environment. We
assessed respondents' ecological knowledge of primates in a rural
community located near the Atlantic Forest remnants in the state of
Paraíba, Brazil. Populations of Alouatta
belzebul (red-handed howler monkeys), Sapajus flavius (blonde
capuchins), and Callithrix jacchus (the common marmoset) inhabit the
region. We conducted 200 semi-structured interviews and applied thematic
content analysis, with weighting, to the responses to quantify the LEK.
Respondents showed a low LEK, despite the community's proximity to
forest remnants. However, the LEK was significantly higher among men, as
well as among those who had a greater degree of contact with the
primates. Age did not influence LEK. The studied community apparently
does not intensively exploit the forest resources nor does it
economically depend on primates, which may explain these individuals'
low levels of knowledge about these animals. Such data may support
future studies, as well as environmental education and action plans,
especially for A. belzebul and S. flavius, both of which are endangered
species and targets of the National Action Plan for the Conservation of
the Primates of the Northeast.

Abstract

Phenolic
compounds and different biological activities of the dry methanol
extracts of the flowers and the herb (aerial parts without flowers) of
Laserpitium zernyi Hayek (Apiaceae) were investigated. The total
phenolic contents in the extracts were determined spectrophotometrically
using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. In both extracts, apigenin, luteolin,
their 7-O-glucosides and chlorogenic acid were detected by HPLC.
Identified phenolics were quantified in both extracts, except luteolin
in L. zernyi herb extract. The extracts (p.o.) were tested for
anti-edematous activity in a model of carrageenan (i.pl.) induced rat
paw edema. Antioxidant activity of the extracts was assessed by FRAP
assay and DPPH and 'OH radicals scavenging tests. Antimicrobial activity
was investigated using broth microdilution test against five
Gram-positive and three Gram-negative bacteria, as well as against two
strains of Candida albicans. The polyphenol-richer flower extract
exerted higher anti-edematous and antioxidant activities. The herb
extract exhibited better antimicrobial effect against Micrococcus
luteus, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, while against other tested microorganisms the activity of
both extracts was identical. Demonstrated biological activities of L.
zernyi flower and herb extracts represent a good basis for their further
investigation as potential new herbal medicinal raw materials. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Three
groups of products enriched with herbs were studied: (1) commercial
herb honeys (n = 5) produced by bees fed a syrup with an herbal extract, (2) natural herbal
honey (n = 3) produced by bees from the nectar of herbs, and (3)
creamed multifloral honey with added dried herbs (n = 5). As a control,
multifloral honey (n = 5) was used. The physicochemical parameters
(i.e., sugar extract, water content, specific rotation, conductivity,
hydroxymethylfurfural content, pH and acidity), sugar profiles (HPLC
analysis), antioxidant activity and total phenolic compounds content of
the studied samples were compared. Although great diversity in the basic
properties of the studied products was observed, they were comparable
to multifloral honey and complied with honey regulations. Significant
differences in sugar composition were observed, and adversely positive
rotation (excluding nettle herb honey) was detected in group 1, likely
resulting from the change in bee feeding. The best antioxidant activity
for creamed honeys with dried herbs (group 2) was investigated, whereas
herb honeys (group 1) exhibited similar antioxidant properties as
multifloral honey. The use of controlled feeding of bees appears to be
an effective method of enriching honey with desirable plant bioactive
components to create innovative bee products.

Abstract

In this review, results of randomized double-blind controlled clinical trials (RCTs) with extracts of Serenoa repens
fruits at a dose of 320 mg/d for the treatment of lower urinary tract
symptoms (LUTS) are assessed. Of the RTCs conducted for up to 6 months,
a benefit was seen in three of three RTCs with ethanolic, in eight of
nine RTCs with hexane, and in one of two RTCs with CO2 extracts. Of the RTCs conducted for more than 6 months, a benefit was seen in two RTCs with hexane and in one RTC with CO2 extracts, whereas one RTC with an ethanolic, two RTCs with hexane, and one RTC with CO2
extracts did not show positive results. As LUTS are dynamic conditions
with strong spontaneous fluctuation over time, the majority of patients
might expect improvement of single symptoms and thus of quality of life,
particularly as the extracts are well tolerated even in long-term
treatment.

3Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena , Siena , Italy.

4Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.

Abstract

Benign
prostatic hyperplasia is a common disease in men aged over 50 years
old, with an incidence increasing to more than 80% over the age of 70,
that is increasingly going to attract pharmaceutical interest. Within
conventional therapies, such as α-adrenoreceptor antagonists and 5α-reductase
inhibitor, there is a large requirement for treatments with less
adverse events on, e.g., blood pressure and sexual function:
phytotherapy may be the right way to fill this need. Serenoa repens
standardized extract has been widely studied and its ability to reduce
lower urinary tract symptoms related to benign prostatic hyperplasia is
comprehensively described in literature. An innovative investigation on
the mechanism of inhibition of 5α-reductase by Serenoa repens
extract active principles is proposed in this work through
computational methods, performing molecular docking simulations on the
crystal structure of human liver 5β-reductase. The results
confirm that both sterols and fatty acids can play a role in the
inhibition of the enzyme, thus, suggesting a competitive mechanism of
inhibition. This work proposes a further confirmation for the rational
use of herbal products in the management of benign prostatic
hyperplasia, and suggests computational methods as an innovative, low
cost, and non-invasive process for the study of phytocomplex activity
toward proteic targets.

Abstract

Stephania
tetrandra ("hang fang ji") and Aristolochia fangchi ("guang fang ji")
are two different plant species used in Traditional Chinese Medicine
(TCM). Both are commonly referred to as "fang ji" and S. tetrandra is
mistakenly substituted and adulterated with the nephrotoxic A. fangchi
as they have several morphological similarities. A. fangchi contains
aristolochic acid, a carcinogen that causes urothelial carcinoma as well
as aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN). In Belgium,
128 cases of AAN was reported while in China, a further 116 cases with
end-stage renal disease were noted. Toxicity issues associated with
species substitution and adulteration necessitate the development of
reliable methods for the quality assessment of herbal medicines.
Hyperspectral imaging in combination with partial least squares
discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) is suggested as an effective method to
distinguish between S. tetrandra and A. fangchi root powder.
Hyperspectral images were obtained in the wavelength region of
920-2514nm. Reduction of the dimensionality of the data was done by
selecting the discrimination information range (964-1774nm). A
discrimination model with a coefficient of determination (R(2)) of 0.9
and a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.23 was created.
The constructed model successfully identified A. fangchi and S.
tetrandra samples inserted into the model as an external validation set.
In addition, adulteration detection was investigated by preparing
incremental adulteration mixtures of S. tetrandra with A. fangchi
(10-90%). Hyperspectral imaging showed the ability to accurately predict
adulteration as low as 10%. It is evident that hyperspectral imaging
has tremendous potential in the development of visual quality control
methods which may prevent cases of aristolochic acid nephropathy in the
future.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Muscle
damage induced by an acute bout of eccentric exercise results in
transient arterial stiffening. In this study, we sought to determine the
effects of progressive eccentric resistance exercise training on
vascular functions, and whether herb supplementation would enhance
training adaptation by ameliorating the arterial stiffening effects.

METHODS:

By
using a double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled design, older
adults were randomly assigned to either the Panax ginseng and Salvia
miltiorrhiza supplementation group (N=12) or the placebo group (N=11).
After pre-training testing, all subjects underwent 12 weeks of
unilateral eccentric-only exercise training on knee extensor.

RESULTS:

Maximal
leg strength and muscle quality increased in both groups (P<0.05).
Relative increases in muscle mass were significantly greater in the
placebo group than in the herb supplement group. Eccentric exercise
training did not elicit any significant changes in muscle damage,
oxidative and inflammatory biomarkers. There were no significant changes
in blood pressure or endothelium-dependent vasodilation. None of the
measures of arterial stiffness changed significantly with eccentric
resistance training in both groups.

1Departments of Anthropology and Occupational Science and Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0032.

Abstract

Urban
hospitals constitute an example of what is arguably the most visible
site in anthropology these days-the border zone. Negotiating health care
requires trafficking in tricky spaces where patients and their families
must pay vigilant attention about when to submit, when to resist, and
how to collaborate. Drawing from ethnographic research carried out over
the past nine years among African American families who have children
with severe illnesses and disabilities, I examine how children's popular
culture operates in the fraught borderland that constitutes the urban
clinic. Global icons like a Disneyfied Pocahantas can function as a
lingua franca, offering a language of publicly available symbols on
which families, health professionals, and children can draw to create a
shared imaginative space across race and class divides and across the
sometimes even more radical divide between sufferer and healer.

Abstract

Penicillium roqueforti
is used as a ripening culture for blue cheeses and largely contributes
to their organoleptic quality and typical characteristics. Different
types of blue cheeses are manufactured and consumed worldwide and have
distinct aspects, textures, flavors and colors. These features are well
accepted to be due to the different manufacturing methods but also to
the specific P. roqueforti strains used. Indeed, inoculated P. roqueforti
strains, via their proteolytic and lipolytic activities, have an effect
on both blue cheese texture and flavor. In particular, P. roqueforti
produces a wide range of flavor compounds and variations in their
proportions influence the flavor profiles of this type of cheese.
Moreover, P. roqueforti
is also characterized by substantial morphological and genetic
diversity thus raising the question about the functional diversity of
this species. In this context, 55 representative strains were screened
for key metabolic properties including proteolytic activity (by
determining free NH2 amino groups) and secondary metabolite
production (aroma compounds using HS-Trap GC-MS and mycotoxins via
LC-MS/Q-TOF). Mini model cheeses were used for aroma production and
proteolysis analyses, whereas Yeast Extract Sucrose (YES) agar medium
was used for mycotoxin production. Overall, this study highlighted high
functional diversity among isolates. Noteworthy, when only P. roqueforti
strains isolated from Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) or
Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) blue cheeses were considered, a
clear relationship between genetic diversity, population structure and
the assessed functional traits was shown.

Abstract

The
presence of cholesterol in foods is of nutritional interest because
high levels of this molecule in human plasma are associated with an
increasing risk of cardiovascular disease and nowadays consumers are
demanding healthier products. The goal of this experiment was to
diminish the cholesterol content of Manchego,
the most popular Spanish cheese manufactured from ewes milk. For this
purpose three bulk milks coming from dairy ewe fed with 0 (Control), 3
and 6% of linseed supplement on their diet were used. Nine cheeses (3
per bulk milk) were manufactured and ripened for 3 months. Cholesterol
of ewes milk cheese from 6% to 12% linseed supplemented diets decreased
by 9.6% and 16.1% respectively, therefore supplying a healthier profile.
In a second experiment, different sources of unsaturated fatty acids
(rich in oleic, linoleic and α-linolenic acids) were supplemented to
dairy ewes and no significant differences were found on cheese
cholesterol levels.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

Infections,
particularly diarrheal infections, are a major cause of neonatal death
in South American camelids. The aim of this study was to identify the
pathogens that could have caused the recent diarrhea outbreak among the
alpacas in Silli, Cusco, located in the southern Peruvian highland.

METHODOLOGY:

Spleen,
kidney, and intestine tissue along with fecal and intestinal lavage
samples were obtained from 50 one- to five-week-old alpacas and analyzed
for the presence of parasites, bacteria, and viruses.

RESULTS:

Laboratory
testing of the 50 crias included in this study revealed that 80% were
infected with Eimeria spp., 40% with coronavirus, 34% with E. coli, 32%
with rotavirus, 22% with Clostridium spp., and 20% with Cryptosporidium
spp. Of these 50 alpaca crias, 20 presented with a single infection (19
positive for Eimeria spp. and 1 positive for rotavirus). Co-infections
with up to four pathogens occurred in 60% of the samples. The
significance of such infections is not clear, but it is noteworthy that
the animals suffering from necrotic and/or hemorrhagic enteritis
presented with quadruple infections. It is likely that co-infections
increase the severity of the disease.

CONCLUSIONS:

These
data show that multiple pathogens circulate among young alpaca crias
and could be associated with diarrheal disease in these animals. The
findings from this study warrant the provision of subsidies for future
assessment of the potential economic impact of these infections on the
productivity of the Peruvian alpaca industry.

Abstract

Addiction
is a chronic and recurring disease that recurrence phenomenon is the
most important challenge in treatment of this disease. Recent
experiences have shown that synthetic drugs have undesirable side
effects. Recent studies on medicinal plants have shown that they might be effective in treatment of different stages of addiction with lower side effects and costs. The aim of this study was to review the effects of medicinal plants in the treatment of morphine addiction
in experimental animals. In this review article, by using keywords of
morphine, withdrawal, and plants or herbal medicine in databases of
indexing cites, desired articles were obtained since 1994. Inclusion
criteria for selecting articles were the articles related to application
of medicinal plants
in decreasing symptoms resulting from morphine withdrawal were
selected. Results of this study on experimental studies have shown that medicinal plants
such as Trachyspermum copticum L and Melissa officinalis decrease the
symptoms of withdrawal syndrome in a dose-dependent. Also, medicinal plants
like Avena sativa, Hypericum perforatu, Passiflora incarnate, Valeriana
officinalis, Satureja hortensis L, and Mentha piperita can have effects
on behavior, emotions, and other problems of addicts, decreasing withdrawal symptoms. Results of this study showed that medicinal plants can be effective in controlling deprivation, decreasing dependency creation, and possibly DETOXIFICATION: of opioid addicts.

Asthma and lower respiratory infections are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in pediatric populations. Thus, having low-cost, effective, safe options for prevention could have important implications for both clinical practice and public health. In this issue of the Journal, Bisgaard and et al.1 report that high-dose supplementation of the n−3 polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) derived from fish oil in the third trimester of pregnancy significantly decreased the risk of persistent wheeze and asthma (the primary outcome) during the first 5 years of a child’s life. The intervention also decreased the rate of lower . . .

Disclosure forms provided by the author are available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org.

SOURCE INFORMATION

From the Lipid Mediators, Inflammation, and Pain Unit, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute on Aging, in Baltimore, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, in Bethesda, MD.